Roosky Plays... Bridge It+

I thought I'd try something new for this blog post. So here it goes - a stream of thoughts as I played through Bridge It+.

This game was practically free, so my expectations are pretty low. I got it in a Simulator bundle from BundleStars.com. There were 10 games for $3.50. It doesn't take a lot to get 35 cents of enjoyment out of a game.

So far it feels pretty much like any other bridge building simulator. Pretty enough though. I'd say we've achieved the 35 cents point.

These physics feel a little funky. Should suspension cables wobble like that?

The stress colors are weird too. Red is definitely bad. Things break when they're red. But blue is also bad?

Hydraulics are cool!

As expected, the easy scenarios were all easy. Which is good. Basic bridge designs have been working pretty well so far.

The bridge tests can be a little redundant. If one train passes over the bridge okay, then a second one will probably work too...

Medium was a little harder than easy. This seems like an appropriate progression.

Ha! Figured it out. Blue is pulling force, and red is squeezing force. Surely there are better engineering terms for that.

I looked it up. Compressive stress and tensile stress.

I suck at building bridges. Good thing I'm a computer engineer and not a civil engineer.

Alright, that is quite possibly the ugliest bridge that was ever designed. I'm half tempted to go back and redo the girders just to be more straight and orderly, but screw it - it worked!

Are bridges in real life this close to falling down all the time? I might start caulking up my car and fording rivers from now on.

The hard scenarios all required some noodle. The game has a fourth difficulty level called "Complex," which I'm now going to atttempt.

I feel clever after getting through the first couple of complex scenarios.

I'm now googling different types of bridges to see what I can do differently. I'm too proud to look up a specific solution to this scenario.

Alright, I give in. I'm now googling designs from other Bridge It+ players.

The money and material constraints really make a lot of the hard and complex stages much more difficult.

I can also understand now why the tests are redundant. On easy and medium stages, it makes no sense, but on the hard and complex levels -- the first phase success is not a guarantee of second phase success.

Last bridge complete! I kind of want to go back and build a giant ramp to fire cars across canyons. How can you play in a physics sandbox and not?

There you have it. The full range of thoughts and emotions that Bridge It+ evokes. Overall, I'm pretty pleased with the game. Took me a couple hours to get through it, and it was a fun and satisfying physics simulator.

Roosky's Rating: 3.5 / 5

At the time of writing, Bridge It+ is available for $14.99 on Steam. I would wait to find it on sale if you'd like to play it.